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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MARY A. WHEELER, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

ALLOY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 354,995, dated December 28, 1886.

Application filed November 12, 1888. Serial No. 111,566. (Specimens To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARY A. WHEELER, a citizen of the United States, and residing at Rochester, county of Monroe, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Alloys, of which the following is a full and clear description.

My invention has for its object the production of a cheap alloy resembling silver, which shall be strong, elastic, resonant, and adapted for the manufacture of a great variety of articles-'-such as cutlery, tableware, bells, watchcases, cane-heads, door-knobs, harness-ornaments, and musical instruments or parts thereof; and it consists in the alloy hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out.

The new alloy may be produced by alloying steel with an alloy made as follows: Fiftysix pounds of tin, six pounds of nickel, one pound of antimony, and two pounds of flint glass, or similar proportions of these mate- In carrying out my improvement one hundred pounds of fine steel, containing, preferably, one per cent. of carbon melted and from ten to twenty pounds of the alloy above described and about one-half pound of pure silver, are added. and the whole melted and thoroughly mixed. This latter result may be effected by stirring with a wooden rod, after which the molten mass is covered with carbonate of soda and powdered charcoal. In a few moments a fluxing will have taken place, and the resulting alloy maybe cast in suitable bars for rolling, hammering, or other manipulation.

The alloy first above described may be properly termed a fwhite alloy, and the alloying of it with steel makes a product whiter than that metal. The relative'amount of the white alloy may be varied, dark steel requiring more and light-colored steel less within about the limits above named.

To facilitate the melting of the steel, it is preferably reduced to a finely-divided state. The white alloy maybe added to it in the melting-vessel gradually. Thetemperatureshould not be raised materially above the meltingpoint of the steel.

I do not limit my present improvement to the particular mode of procedure above de scribed or to any other mode, as I herein. only claim the product. Substantially th same result could be obtained by alloying the amount of nickel and tin required in the product, and then alloying the silver and antimony with about one-fourth of the nickel and tin compound. Bessemer steel being melted, the remaining three-fourths of the nickel and tin alloy should be added, and in a few moments the whole of the silver and antimony alloy, flux and charcoal being used substantially as set forth in describing the first mode of procedure. Other modes of compounding these metals and fluxing the same may bev devised or selected. As stated, the temperature should not be raised much above the fusing point of steel, and a deoxidizing atmosphere should be maintained above them both. The steel may be first alloyed with a less volatile metal or metals, and subsequently the alloy thus formed may be combined with more volatile metals or alloys, and at a temperature below the melting-point of steel.

If the above described operation be conducted with care and as described, there will be but trifling loss by sublimation, and there will be no material variation in proportions due to fluxing if ordinarily clear metals be employed. There will probably be some loss of antimony; but the precise proportionate amount of that metalis not important, as a good alloy'with'in my invention can be made with none or a trace of that metal; nor do I consider it essential that the exact proportionate amounts of the other metals be maintained in the final product, the alloy being broadly new, so far as I am aware.

Some of the possible variations in my improved alloy may possess little malleability. In such case the alloy may be annealed or treated in known ways to increase that property.

Having thus described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is A silver-like alloy consisting of steel, silver, nickel, tin, and antimony.

WVitnesses: MARY A. I/VHEELER.

E. B. WHITMORE, L. G. WHITMORE. 

